Destroyed

My people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6 As Jesus hung dying on the cross and the onlooking crowd hurled abuse and mockery at Him, He cried out to the Father, "Forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing." That's a perspective that's unnatural to us apart from Christ, and even in Christ we often struggle with forgiving those who treat us unjustly. Yet, when we see as He sees, think as He thinks, know as He knows, we begin to understand, and He can then take us ever deeper into that understanding. The hardest aspect of my ministry over these past 40 plus years has been that of watching friends and family being destroyed "for lack of knowledge." They lack true knowledge of Him and of His ways and words. They know of Him, but they don't know Him. As a result they make choices and decisions based on their own understanding and perception. The Bible defines that as their living according to the flesh and not of His Spirit. This way of life will always, I repeat, ALWAYS ultimately lead to destruction. In Hosea 4, God was speaking to both His priests and people. They did not know and believe the God that they claimed to believe and follow. Destruction and catastrophe would be the price they paid. In the church today, I see people of all ages leading lives based on the flesh and not on His Holy Spirit and His Word. They are making choices that feed the flesh and self-life. Choices that cost those around them, and ultimately themselves. It's a heavy price they will pay. Husbands and wives abandoning their marriages and families. Men and women pursue desires that cause them to neglect the very ones they have been charged to love, lead, and nurture. This is the way of the flesh and is never the way of the Spirit. As a result marriages, families, lives, and even churches, are being destroyed because they don't really walk in the knowledge of God and His Way. One of the prayers found in Scripture is that He would "teach us His ways." The need that He should, is desperate within the church. May we, every husband, every wife. Every father and every mother. Every pastor and every professing believer, come before Him and allow Him to root out every place in our lives that is being destroyed because we are following the impulses and desires of the flesh over that of His Holy Spirit. We have allowed the enemy to destroy far too many of our marriages, families, and churches. That destruction has to stop, but it will only stop when we say "enough." Are you ready to say that, or will the destruction go on? Blessings, Pastor O